Epiphania (Boyxboy)

Part 7: O Thánatos Eínai Móno I Archí "Death is Only The Beginning"

A/N: Ephiphania is now complete. Since this is an origins story, this is the end of Angelo's story as a teenager. Hope you like this ending JellyfishSong, Spark187 and anyone else who is reading!

As Ardoin pulled up into the parking lot of The Sea Shanty, a motel in Crystal Beach, Florida, Angelo felt a sense of anger overtake him. Sometime tonight, Angelo was gonna go to a familiar town less than four miles away to pick up a package Ardoin had waiting for him.

Back to the last place Angelo wanted to ever see again. Tarpon Springs.

In fact, he'd told Ardoin so the night before, when the man ever so offhandedly mentioned that Angelo would be doing this. In the year he'd been with him, Angelique and Sylvie, Angelo had learned damned fast that Ardoin never asked you to do something, he informed you that you were doing it. And you could argue or backtalk or protest all you wanted, he didn't care. In fact, it amused the bastard. The more you hated it, the more he got off on making you do it.

Knowing that, Angelo should have just accepted his orders and went on with them. But even though it was a useless waste of energy, he had to fight it, token protest or not. (I told you I was never going back there,) Angelo had growled.

(That you did,) Ardoin agreed.

Angelo glowered at the man he'd quickly come to hate in the past twelve months. (What part of "never" do you not understand, Ardoin?)

Ardoin had only given Angelo an indulgent smile. (What part of "it doesn't matter," do you not comprehend, boy? It doesn't matter. You're doing it.)

Fine and dandy. If Angelo was gonna have to go back there anyway, he might as well tie up the one loose end he left behind.

Dimitri. Angelo had left him alive when he made his exit from the sponge fishing town and that had been a mistake. Technically, Angelo should have slaughtered his whole family and anyone else who would notice that Angelo would never age but the only one who really SAW Angelo, who had any connection with Angelo was his cousin Dimitri.

And if Dimitri knew that Angelo was an incubus who'd fed on him regularly, then it wouldn't be such a huge stretch for him to believe that his younger cousin had become ... not vrikolakas but damned close. Which meant eventually he'd have to kill Dimitri anyway.

No time like the present.

In his time as a Nightchild, Angelo had learned how to master his powers. Now getting to Tarpon Springs to pick up Ardoin's stupid package was just a matter of phasing out - willing his body to lose substance and turn to mist that could drift on the wind to anywhere. Then when he got to wherever he was headed, he just phased back in, materializing into his solid form. He'd played with that trick, learned that he could control how insubstantial he wanted to be. Angelo could go through walls and doors and even the smallest of cracks. He could get into any public area and any private area he had the invite to.

And how did he learn this? Not from Sylvie, she was an absent mother. She and Angelo hunted together once in a while but other than that, Sylvie barely had anything to do with her offspring. She cared as a mother would, making sure Angelo was safe but other than that, nothing.

He didn't learn it from Angelique, who'd become Angelo's "woman" since he went over to her after Ardoin had bound his soul. He did learn quite a bit from the wise witch but most of it was arcane knowledge about the applications of energy in using magic along with information about various herbs used for potions and spells. Nothing that was really relevant about being a Nightchild or even Sangsue, though Anqelique did tell Angelo that because his body was technically dead, he wouldn't need to jump as often, since it wouldn't absorb the sex energy he took in as fast. Instead of nightly, he could jump weekly or if he wanted to push things, monthly. But he didn't have that option with juicing. Angelo needed blood every night and depending on how much he drank at one time, it could be as much as several times a night.